Wall covering



Dec. 8, 1964 T. J. GILLICK, JR., ETAL 3,160,548

WALL COVERING Filed Aug. 18, 1959 INVENTORS THOMAS J. GILLICK, JR. HAROLD e. HENCKEN BY MURIEL s. PARKER law 044a 72m 2 m ATTORNEYS Un ted States Patent 0,

3,160,548 W LL CQVE ING Thom G l l -i G ear a fiiaro a G- He th and Muriel S. Parker, Greenwich, Conn, assignors to American Felt Company, Glenville, Conn, a corporaion o Ma sachus tt Filed Aug. '18, 1959, Ser. No. 834,571

ijciatm. (Cl-J161;-151) This invention relates to a surface coating material. for covering walls, ceilings and other surfaces designated herein as a wall covering, particularly to a new'and im- Proved posite ver n o acrnw v layers of fibrous material joined by a non-woven impermeable barrier layer, and to the method of making the same.

The building industry and interior decorators have recognizedfor some time that felt, and particularly Wool felt, has a number of potential functional and decorative advantages as a covering for walls and the like. For in stance, if procedures were known for producing apractical wall covering material from felt, the wallpaper designer would have great flexibility in his selection of colors and color pat erns and as a result, the interior decorator could createa variety of esthetic effects. At the same time such wall coverings would contribute very significantly to lowering the noise level in a room or other enclosed space. Yet, as far as is known, no practical wall covering containing a felt facing has heretofore been provided. An effort has been made to obtain the benefits of a felt wall covering by the application of felt directly to the wall by use of pressure sensitive adhesives. These wall coverings have proven to be unsatisfactory for the felt was not dimensionally stable and was not satisfactorily bonded to wall covering in which the layers of fibrous material are dimensionally stable.

Another object of this invention is to provide such a wall covering in which the exposed layer of fibrous material is fire, soil and moth resistant.

Another object of this invention is to provide such a wall and ceiling covering in which an extremely dimensionally stable Wool felt that has been treated so as to be flame proofed and stain and spot resistant is combined with a rubberized water-resistant and flame-proof paper.

Another object of this'invention is to provide such a wall and ceiling covering in which the wool felt is bonded to the rubberized paper by an intermediate impermeable barrier layer.

In one aspect of the invention, a paper stock, which may be a saturation type bleached kraft paper stock, one produced from cotton linters, mechanical wood pulp, chemical Wood pulp such as sulfite pulp, alkali pulp, or one containing a high percentage of cellulose, may be treated with a fire-proofing solution and a natural or synthetic rubber latex to provide a suitable fibrous backing material.

employed in the treatment of the wool felt to render it moth,-;soil and spot resistant. v 1 v a In another aspect of the invention, the paper may be 3,160,548 Pa en ed Dec! ,v

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bonded to the wool felt through the agency of a thermoplastic barrier layer which may be applied to the one surface of the paper or may comprise a thin film located between the wool felt and the paper. Adequate heatand pressure may be applied'to the. layers of material in a manner to melt or soften the thermoplastic material to a degree to effect a bonding action between it, the wool felt and the paper. The end product comprises a composite sheet of wall or ceiling covering. including a dimensionally stable fire and waterresistant back layer of paper, an intermediate impermeable'layer of plastic, and a front or exposed layer of extremely dimensionally stable moth, fire and spot resistant wool felt. The layer may be formed in various manners.

The above, other objects-and novel features oft-he invention will become apparent from thefollowing; specification and accompanying drawing which is. merely exemplary.

In the drawing, the single figure is across sectional elestock heretofore used in the production of wallpaper.-

For instance, a bleached kraft paper stock heavily beaten with a fire-proofing solution and a synthetic rubber latex such as but-adiene-styrene or a butadiene acrylonitrile latex will provide a very satisfactory backing for the wall covering of this invention. Of course, other types of papers heretofore used in wall covering may also be used as a backing, such as those produced from cotton linters or from mechanical wood pulp and other types of chemical wood pulp such as sulfite pulp, alkali pulp or other types of sulfate pulp or even paper stock containing high percentages of cellulose. Such latex-impregnated and flame-proofed papers have the advantage of inhibiting too deep penetration by the liquid impermeable plastic interlayer 12 and of being dimension-ally stable, which latter contributes importantly to the dimensional stability of the wall covering material having the felt facing 11 thereon.

The layer 11 may comprise various types of felt, but wool felt, as stated, is preferred. One of the advantages of Wool felt resides in the fact that it can be readily dyed with a great variety of lightfast dyes. For instance, wool felt facing may be dyed and dried under tension (tcntered) and then preshrunk to provide a dimensionally stable wool felt which does not fade even after one hundred hours in the fadometer. resistant by known wet processing techinques such as by treating the felt with various types of ammonia or aluminum compounds. In the same way, the felt may be rendered temporarily or permanently moth resistant and soil and spot resistant by the use of known moth-proofing and soil-resistant teXt-ile'auxiliaries.

The impermeable barrierlayer 12 may comprise either thermoplastic or thermosetting plastics, provided they have sufficient inherent elasticity or are-appropriately plasticized to impart to them the flexibility necessary for their use in a wall covering material. Regardless of the nature of the interlayer 12, however, it is important that the plastic be impermeable to liquids for the adhesives used in applying the paper backing to the wall should not penetrate to the felt and thereby cause deformation. Various types of polyvinyl chloride resins may be used to advantage as the interlayer 12, such as those'derived from vinyl chloride, vinylidene chloride and copolymers derived from vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate. Such thermoplas- The felt may be rendered firetic resins having chlorine therein, probably due to the presence of the chlorine, impart flame extinguishing characteristics to the Wall covering material or combination. An interlayer 12 of polyvinyl chloride resins and certain other synthetic plastic materials will provide one possessing high dielectric strength and thereby inhibit sparking resulting from static build-up.

The wall covering may be assembled in a known manner. For example, the paper backing 10 may be first coated with a thermoplastic material 12. Then the coated paper backing 10 and the felt facing 11 may be run through a calendering machine so that the felt facing and the coated side of the paper 10 are adjacent to one another. In this way, by using an appropriate temperature and pressure, the thermoplastic resin may be melted or softened thereby to provide a bond between the paper 10 and felt 11 which will serve as an impermeable interlayer between the paper backing 10 and the felt layer 11. In an alternative procedure, the paper backing 10 may have a thermoplastic film 12 superimposed upon it and a felt layer 11 superimposed on the film 12. The assembled layers may then be run through a calender, the calender rolls of which are heated to an appropriate temperature. Also, if dmired, the paper backing 10 may be coated with a resinous material containing a curing agent, the felt layer 11 may be applied over the coating and the resin allowed to cure in situ thereby to bond the paper 10 and felt 11 together, thereby also forming a liquid-impervious interlayer 12. Further the impervious layer may comprise a dispersion.

It will be apparent that the foregoing description and illustrative embodiments of the invention are susceptible to various modifications, and changes may be made in a number of its details in order to adapt the invention to various conditions and yet remain within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A dimensionally stabilized noise suppressive wall covering sheet suitable for decoration comprising a thin and flexible Water resistant dimensionally stabilized backing paper bonded to a thin layer of preshrunk wool felt facing by a relatively impermeable fused thermoplastic layer.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

